Birthday card…

I’ve been working on my sister’s birthday card today, and I’d like to share it. It’s not part of any challenge—just a plain old card for my sister, who’s staying with me this weekend. I did try out the rolled flowers tutorial that was posted on Splitcoaststampers this week. Hope you like it!

GC51…

Still having fun this weekend! I’ve been playing around a bit this afternoon, and completed a card for GC51, Botanical, over on Gingersnap Creations. I have lots of birthdays coming up in May, so I better get busy making some cards!!!

This one also uses this week’s sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers, SC278.

I’ve used Graphic 45 paper and the stamped image is from I Brake for Stamps.  For the background squares, I used the Glassy Embossing technique from the Feb/Mar 2010 issue of Technique Junkies. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits, then covered the image with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. I hope you like it!!

A couple more valentines….

Before you ask—yes, I’m almost done! Maybe I’ll even spare you from the last two or three I’m going to make! I am going to make you suffer through the two I made this morning, though!!! Neither one is anything really special. It’s kind of hard to mess them up when you’re using Basic Grey papers!!!

Here’s the first one that uses Basic Grey Blush and Splitcoaststampers sketch SC243:

Here’s the second one that uses Basic Grey Porcelain and this week’s Splitcoaststampers sketch, SC266:

Now I need to find something to eat—I put some chicken curry in the crock pot this morning, and the smell is making me hungry!!!

GC41 and other ramblings…

Whew! What a day!!! Unfortunately, I didn’t play nearly as much as I wanted today! When I woke up to this out the back door…

…and talk on the news about snow emergencies, etc., I thought I would have a nice quiet day to play. Instead, I spent the morning e-mail flirting with my Alabama boy toy (Chester, you know who you are!) and the afternoon with company and then on the phone for an hour and a half. So, the card that should have taken me not-very-long to put together ended up taking all day. That’s OK—e-mail flirting is fun and it’s always good to have company and there’s always tomorrow to play!!

I’m trying to get all my valentines done this weekend. Here’s the one I did get done, and I’m also using it for an entry in the GC41 Chestnut Challenge, Romance. This is just the first of my entries for this challenge—I’m sure I’ll have lots!!!

This also uses the Splitcoaststampers sketch SC207. I hope to be back tomorrow with more valentines and a birthday card for my dad, who turns 79 on Valentine’s Day. Til then, have a good evening!

Quick post…

I did another Valentine that came together pretty quickly. This one is for my nephew.

I know it doesn’t look much like a Valentine—not a heart in sight! The inside sentiment is cute, though. It says, “I’m a-tractored to you.” Let me know what you think! The sketch used here is SC247 from Splitcoaststampers.

Another Valentine…

Have you figured out yet that I love to make Valentines? I guess it’s kind of silly—a 50 year old woman giving Valentines to all her friends and family—but it’s so much fun!!! It makes me feel like a kid again. Don’t you remember being in grade school and cutting a hole in the top of a shoe box, decorating it, and taking it to school to be your Valentine mailbox? I guess part of me has never grown up!!!

So—here’s another Valentine I made last night. I’m loving the Artistic Outpost Geek is Chic set—this is my second Valentine using it!

Of course, the inside sentiment is the “I {heart} nerds” stamp! Let me know what you think.

I’m off to make one or two more Valentines today in between doing laundry! Oh—and if you wondered, my nephew liked his sock monkey birthday card!

***EDIT***
I forgot to mention—the card sketch I used is from Splitcoaststampers—SC252.

No stamping required…

I was at my friend Wendy’s house Friday night for a “play date,” and we were looking through the Splitcoaststampers sketch challenges. I came across this one and my mind went completely blank, so I decided yesterday to challenge myself and try to make a card using it. (You see my masochistic tendencies coming out her, don’t you? LOL) This is in keeping with the Valentine theme I’m into right now. Let me know what you think about this non-stamping card!!!

Christmas card—final version…

Hey there! I posted my prototype Christmas card earlier—here’s the slightly modified version. I stamped in white on the card base and inked the edges of the kraft mat behind the image. I know these are subtle changes, but they make a real difference, at least to my eye. Hope you like it! Oh—I didn’t change border punches. I was going to switch to the Martha Stewart doily punch, but it wouldn’t go through the SU! burgundy paper. So aggravating!!! Also—the image was stamped in Peeled Paint, not Shabby Shutters as previously reported. Finally—I forgot to give credit to SCS for the sketch—this is SC150 from Splitcoaststampers. Let me know what you think! Otherwise, I’m getting a cold just in time for jury duty tomorrow morning. Great. Have a good week everybody—hope I get a chance to play this week and have some more things to share with you!

Is the weekend over already?

They go too fast, don’t they? I don’t have anything of my own to share with you today, but if you’re looking for some quick little projects for the holidays, be sure to check out the Holiday Blitz tutorials that have been happening over at Splitcoaststampers all week. I know you’ll find something there that will inspire you!

I hope to have a little something for you next weekend. As part of the Christmas Card Class I’m teaching with Angie and Rena next Saturday, I’ve come up with a bonus project—it’s a very simple gift card holder. My goal is to put together my very first tutorial and post it for you next weekend.

The other big thing next weekend will be the blog candy giveaway! I’m confident I will get one more comment from someone new so I can draw names for the candy. Remember—if I don’t get another comment from someone different, the prize defaults to Lynn!

I did get the grass mowed this morning in time to go for the Sunday drive I mentioned yesterday. I’m glad I took advantage of the beautiful Indian Summer day we had here in southwest Ohio. I have a feeling it may be the last nice weekend. It’s supposed to start raining Tuesday and get cooler. I hope you had the chance to do something relaxing that you’ve been looking forward to!

Halloween “Candy”

For those of you who read my post yesterday, you might remember that I was toying with the idea of going to Marco’s when I left Rosa Parks Elementary. Well—it was such a beautiful day that I couldn’t resist the drive up there. I’ve had an idea rolling around in my head for a couple of days and the trip to Marco’s sealed the deal. What am I talking about you may ask? The answer is….

BLOG CANDY!!!!!

And why am I giving away blog candy? I was very excited the other day to discover that I have my first blog follower!!!! Thank you, Lynn! Be sure to check out Lynn’s blog, Trash to Treasure Art. Lynn does fabulous work. And be sure to check out her items published in the latest edition of Somerset Studio magazine—on sale now. I picked up a copy at Marco’s yesterday and Lynn’s pieces are beautiful!

I know—you want me to answer the most important question—what might that blog candy be? Here it is:

Those are the Create A Flake 1 Shapeabilities from Spellbinders and some tags (a la Tim Holtz) thrown in for good measure, since he will hopefully be doing another 12 Tags of Christmas this holiday season and I want you to play along. As for the Shapeabilities—if you’re wondering why I chose these as my very first blog candy, be sure to check out the wonderful tutorial from Sherry Cheever (aka Bad Sherry) over on SCS or on her blog. After you do, you are gonna want these dies!!!!

I’m sure by now you’re wondering how you can win this splendiforous prize. Well, this is where the challenge comes in—between now (October 31) and Saturday, November 14, I want to get comments from a minimum of 15 different people. On November 15, I will put all the names in a box and draw one—that lucky person will get the blog candy. However… if my blog doesn’t get comments from 15 different people, then the blog candy goes to my very first follower, Lynn.

So if you want to be in the running for the dandy candy, leave a comment and get all your friends to leave comments, too.

Let the fun begin!!!

More weekend creativeness…

I hate to admit that I’ve squandered this beautiful Sunday sitting inside making cards, but there you have it! I have some Halloween cards to show you. I’ve always sent Halloween cards to my nieces and nephew and have handmade them for the last few years. These are the cards I’m sending them this year.

This is my first attempt at a stair step card. I stamped the fence and monster silhouettes, embossed them, and cut them out (at least partially). That accounts for the glare on the monsters—sorry about that! The pumpkins, haunted house, and bats are Tim Holtz grungeboard painted with black acrylic paint. I sponged some yellow over the blue behind the house to give it an eerie green glow, but am not sure it looks that good. Oh well. I cased a card from Bad Sherry on SCS—hers is definitely better! You can’t see the sentiment between the pumpkins very well, but it says, “Bugs and Hisses!”

Here’s the next one. I used SCS sketch SC240. The stamp is Impression Obsession and in case you can’t see it, the charm has a skull and crossbones and says “Beware.” I picked these charms up awhile back—I think at Archiver’s. The paper is the new Basic Grey Eerie. 

This one gave me fits—I couldn’t quite figure out what to do with it. I knew I wanted to use this Edgar Allen Poe image from Oxford Impressions, but didn’t know what else to do. The Graphic 45 paper was pretty fabulous on its own, but I embellished it with some spider web stamps, a raven, and a spider. The black border on the right is chipboard cut with the Cuttlebug, as is the frame. The border was inked with black ink and the frame was painted with Antique Brass Crackle Paint. “Nevermore” was stamped on a piece of parchment looking paper that was torn and distressed. I attached another one of those cute charms—this one has a spider and says, “Creepy.” What do you think?

That’s it for this weekend—be sure to show me some of your creations soon!  

As promised…

I didn’t get as much playing done as I wanted to today, but I did force myself to settle on paper for my Christmas cards, which is a huge relief! Here is a picture of the paper and the image I’m using in two different colors. I haven’t decided yet whether to go with the red or green. The image is from Cornish Heritage Farms. What do you think?

I also made a birthday card for a friend who I found out celebrated a birthday last week and I didn’t know it. Here’s a picture of it.

I’m not sure how well some of the detail shows up in this photo. First, I want to credit Splitcoaststampers for the layout—this is SC232 if you’re interested.  I used some of the yummy Basic Grey Indian Summer paper, and a Tim Holtz
Idea-ology Muse Token that says “Wonderful.” The stamped image is from ERA Graphics. It’s been treated with the cracked glass technique (as are the Christmas card images)—I’m on a roll with that. I haven’t finished the inside yet, but I picked up a terrific stamp a couple of weeks ago at the best stamp store on the planet, Stamp Your Art Out! It’s from their very own stamp line, Verses, and says, “Surely a star danced in heaven on the day you were born.” I hope he likes it!

That’s it for today, Pussydoll Cats! I’m going to keep on inkin’ and will try to post more creations tomorrow!

A fun technique!

OK, folks—I was asked to post some of my cards. I really am apprehensive, but here goes….

I spent some time last Sunday teaching some crafting friends how to use a few of the fun products that are out there, specifically embossing powders and alcohol inks. Here are a couple of cards I recently made that combine the two:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both cards have alcohol ink backgrounds with the images heat embossed and matted on cardstock. The train card on the right uses a sketch from one of the World Card Making Day challenges over at SCS.  So, I would like to encourage you to get out those alcohol inks that you had to have but never use, and make some backgrounds! You can make some stunning cards with very little investment in time and effort. And as always, be sure to share your creations with me!

I will try to post more cards later this afternoon (specifically the Christmas card samples I’m teaching at Angie and Rena’s church next month). But for now, I have to get ready for Pilates and then go to work (bummer!).

P.S. Queen Pam: Thanks for the tip about Live Writer—it works like a charm!

Happy World Card Making Day!

This is one of the year's major holidays for us papercrafters, isn't it? I hope your plans for the day (or at least the weekend) include spending time in your craft area doing something creative! If you need some inspiration to spark that creativity, you need look no further than Splitcoaststampers. Their member companies will be issuing challenges for you to play along with all day long, and if you post your creations, you could even win fabulous prizes!

Another place you can post your creations is in the gallery on the World Card Making Day website. Here you can find the history of the holiday, some ideas to help you celebrate, and some sample cards to inspire you.

I've done a quick blog search and found lots of people who are celebrating today! Have a look at some of their creations:

For the love of life
Inkurable stampers
Little Birdie Secrets
Moxie Fab World

There are plenty more fellow papercrafters and papercrafting/stamping companies out there who are celebrating on their blogs. If you would like to search for more, here's a link to Google's Blog Search tool.

I'm off to get ready for my first pilates session, but I hope you will get inky! And be sure to take a picture and share with me--I'll post your creation right here!